New Polls Show Trump Gaining As Health Issues Stalk Clinton

As the 2016 presidential race enters its homestretch, a new national poll shows that while one candidate has the lead, the other has momentum.

Quinnipiac University reported on Wednesday that Republican nominee Donald Trump, who was trailing Democrat Hillary Clinton by 10 points in Quinnipiac’s Aug. 25 poll, has halved that lead to five points in a head-to-head race, and is down only two points when the minor party candidates are in the mix.

“No doubt the pneumonia will pass, but like a nagging cough that just won’t go away, Donald Trump defies every remedy Hillary Clinton throws at him,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, referencing the diagnosis Clinton’s campaign has said she was given on Friday, which wasn’t revealed until after her medical episode on Sunday.

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Quinnipiac’s poll, which has a margin of error of 3.2 percent, found that Clinton leads Trump 48 to 43 percent, down from a 51 to 41 percent advantage on Aug. 25.

Clinton’s lead falls within the poll’s margin of error in a four-way race. With four candidates in the mix, Clinton received 41 percent support, Trump 39 percent, Libertarian Gary Johnson 13 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein 4 percent.

A separate poll shows the impact of recent issues with Clinton’s health.

The poll released Wednesday by Morning Consult found that 50 percent of voters believe Clinton has given false information about her health to the public.

The poll also showed that 79 percent of those responding are aware of Clinton’s health issues, which included coughing fits last week and a near-collapse Sunday in New York City that was blamed on pneumonia, dehydration and overheating.

The poll found that 41 percent of those responding said Clinton’s health is below average or very poor, way up from 26 percent in August. Only 16 percent said the same about Trump.